8x8 pixel Time-of-Flight sensor is only 2.65x2.7mm

Swiss company Espros has completed its cwTOF imager family with the epc611, its smallest Time-of-Flight sensor to date, measuring only 2.65x2.7mm and delivering a 8x8 pixel field.

Sampling now and in volume production at TSMC, the chip can either be used as an 8x8 pixel imager for simple gesture recognition, door protection, or presence detection near machines, or as a fast range finder for simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) applications with rotating sensors. This would be the case for vacuum cleaners, autonomous ground vehicles and robots that need to extract 3D information from one plane to navigate. A scanner built around the epc611 chip could operate as 15m range­finder, with a range measurement accuracy in centimetre, taking up to 4,000 measurements per second. This acquisition speed allows a scanner rotating speed of 10Hz and while achieving a 1° resolution. The chip draws very little power and is inexpensive to design-in, claims the manufacturer.